RICKY THOMASON: Rental trucks, dead rats and air fresheners

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. _ Last week I reserved a one-way truck rental for a must be 10-foot box truck in Atlanta to transport furniture from a parking-deck storage room to Decatur. Return was in Madison, Ala. the next day.

The Georgia rental place produced a 16-foot van.

I explained that my reservation specified a 10-footer - anything taller more would not fit.

The lady offered the 16-footer for the same price.

I explained again why I specified the 10-footer. She shrugged, made a few clicks on the computer and said, "We don't have a 10-foot van within 50 miles."

I considered seeking a 10-foot van at other rental agencies until deep breaths and more computer clicks revealed 10-footers at a cross town location.

They had two. The shorter, was nice and new but for local rental only. The taller looked ratty. There was an odd odor inside it, almost identifiable but masked by powerful air freshener.

We got under way and by the time we reached the condo the square-wheeled truck's engine and transmission heated up and the undertone odor became a very loud overtone. It was a dead rat, something once-smelled, never forgotten.

The truck proved one inch too tall to fit in the parking deck. With the aid of my friend, his 100-pound wife, a dolly with a flat tire and a rickety cart, we somehow managed to get everything down five stories and into the rat-mobile.

I saturated the truck cab with the supplied air freshener and headed for Alabama. Within a half hour, the rat defeated the air freshener and continued to worsen as the truck got hotter. I made it out of the city and found a place to pull over, hung my head out and revisited my breakfast.

A fruitless search for the rat, and half can of outgunned of air-freshener later, I was off again.

Home, I stripped in the garage, piled my clothes to burn, and took a long shower hot enough to scald a hog.

My wife came in, sniffed and said, "You smell funny," then laughed when she found out why.

I returned the rat-mobile. The intake girl took one whiff and said, "My, God. How did you stand that?" I explained. She said, "Call customer service, raise enough hell, and they might give you a good break on the rental cost. They should. We can't send this truck back out like this."

I called. The lady offered 12 bucks. "That's $2.40 / hr. for 5 hours with a dead rat. Would you take that?" She said, "That's all I can offer." Her supervisor, Herbert, I think, had to be the rudest joker there, offered, "$20 - take or leave it." I said I'd leave it, wanted half my rental back, and asked for his supervisor. Herbert then offered $30, and said he didn't have a supervisor.

I asked if he owned the place, and after further argument finally got an "executive desk" address, plus a final-final offer of $40.

I took the $40, and promised to spread the word of their customer service dept. as far as I could.

I'm writing the "executive desk" of the rental agency and asking a few questions.

What is advertising? I'd say a moment to create a positive image towards your company's products and services in hopes the customer bring their business to you.

If "word of mouth" is the best advertising, "word of mouth"can also be the worst advertising when that mouth spreads the word of poor service after the sale. Some estimates say happy customers tell three people, disgruntled ones tell six.